Beet and Squash Faux Tomato Sauce

I experimented with a dish like this a few months ago when Ms. gorgeous and I had leftover beets and squash, and it turned out pretty well. On vacation with my parents I tried it again with the principle goal being to make the sauce and it turned out great. The flavor of the beets and the squash together make a wonderful combination and go incredibly well with pasta just like normal tomato sauce. A nice end of winter coming into spring sort of dish.

First you can see the pasta on the left above. It is sort of a funky circular pasta. Unique and delicious. My parents brought that with them.

The sauce is incredibly easy to make only requiring beets, squash (I think we used winter), oranges, and salt and pepper. It will take as long as the beets and squash take to cook plus about 10 - 20 minutes to prepare the sauce (Pasta should be made at the same time).

Prepare the beets and squash. For the beets boil in water until they are tender when pricked with a fork - about 45 minutes and you may need to refill the water to keep the beets covered. For the squash, slice in half and brush a small amount of olive oil on each end. Place face down on a baking sheet and cook for about 30-45 minutes at 400 degrees until tender.

Once the ingredients are cooked, peel the skin off the beets and put into a blender saving one on the side. Scoop out the squash and put the flesh in the blender as well. Blend until smooth (Ms. gorgeous one complaint was it was too smooth so maybe pulsate and not puree). While blending, dice the saved beet into small pieces and put to the side. Ms. gorgeous had the great idea to put oranges on top to add a little zing to the sauce. It turned out wonderfully so additionally peel and cut an orange into small pieces.

Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper. It is ready to be eaten.

Put it on top of your favorite pasta, add some of the beets chunks to give it some additional texture and then the orange to offer a contrast in color and flavors. The sauce looks like pure beets but the winter squash offers significant flavor and background to the beet taste. Oranges are a little funky but give a sweet kick, definitely a plus.

Enjoy, I will definitely be making it again.